“Certainly it's not bad having different people win," Elliott said. The surprising group also includes William Byron, who claimed just his second career victory, and Kyle Larson, coming back from a season in which he was lost his job and was suspended for making a racial slur in an online race. The first five races of 2021 have produced five different winners, including first-timers Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell. "Knowing now what it meant to the sport, and just that moment in general of being able to carry on, was so important,” Harvick said.Īfter a 16-year drought in Atlanta, he has won two of the last three Cup races at the track, including last year's pandemic-delayed event.
He didn't realize the magnitude of the moment at the time. Harvick replaced Earnhardt on the Richard Childress team and took the checkered flag in just his third Cup start. Twenty years ago, he won his first Cup race at the track only three weeks after the death of Dale Earnhardt. Some things to watch for in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500: “I’m looking forward to racing there twice this year,” Truex said. If it doesn't work out this time, he'll get another chance in July. For sure, I would love to go have a good run.” “I spent lot of time racing Legends cars and things like that down there. “It’s always going to be a special place for me," he said. Reigning Cup champion Chase Elliott is thrilled to have two chances to win at what he considers his home track. The first race scheduled in California in February was moved because of COVID-19 restrictions, but NASCAR still has a June stop in Sonoma on the schedule. To accommodate the changes, NASCAR dumped Chicago and Kentucky. Nashville is back on the schedule for the first time since 1984. So has South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway, which was limited to one race from 2005-19. The coronavirus pandemic muddled the effort in 2020, but this year’s schedule includes 19 races in those seven traditional states - the most since 2003.Ītlanta has returned to having two Cup dates.